Homeland (The Legend of Drizzt #1)(52)

“What is this, then?” came a voice from the room’s doorway. The brothers turned to see their sister Vierna, a mistress of Arach-Tinilith. “Put your weapons away,” she scolded. “House Do’Urden cannot afford such infighting now!”

Realizing that he had been let off the hook, Dinin readily complied with the demands, and Drizzt did likewise.

“Consider yourselves fortunate,” said Vierna, “for I’ll not tell Matron Malice of this stupidity. She would not be merciful, I promise you.”

“Why have you come unannounced to Melee-Magthere?” asked the elderboy, perturbed by his sister’s attitude. He, too, was a master of the Academy, even if he was only a male, and deserved some respect.

Vierna glanced up and down the hallway, then closed the door behind her.

“To warn my brothers,” she explained quietly. “There are rumors of vengeance against our house.”

“By what family?” Dinin pressed. Drizzt just stood back in confused silence and let the two continue. “For what deed?”

“For the elimination of House DeVir, I would presume,” replied Vierna. “Little is known; the rumors are vague. I wanted to warn you both, though, so that you might keep your guard especially high in the coming months.”

“House DeVir fell many years ago,” said Dinin. “What penalty could still be enacted?”

Vierna shrugged. “They are just rumors,” she said. “Rumors to be listened to!”

“We have been accused of a wrongful deed?” Drizzt asked. “Surely our family must callout this false accuser.”

Vierna and Dinin exchanged smiles. “Wrongful?” Vierna laughed.

Drizzt’s expression revealed his confusion. “On the very night you were born,” Dinin explained, “House DeVir ceased to exist. An excellent attack, thank you.”

“House Do’Urden?” gasped Drizzt, unable to come to terms with the startling news. Of course, Drizzt knew of such battles, but he had held out hope that his own family was above that sort of murderous action.

“One of the finest eliminations ever carried out,” Vierna boasted. “Not a witness left alive.”

“You... our family... murdered another family?”

“Watch your words, Secondboy,” Dinin warned. “The deed was perfectly executed. In the eyes of Menzoberranzan, therefore, it never happened.”

“But House DeVir ceased to exist,” said Drizzt.

“The child,” said Dinin with a laugh.

A thousand possibilities assaulted Drizzt at that awful oment, a thousand pressing questions that he needed answered. One in particular stood out vividly, welling like a lump of bile in his throat.

“Where was Zaknafein that night?” he asked.

“In the chapel of House DeVir’s clerics, of course,” replied Vierna. “Zaknafein plays his part in such business so very well.”

Drizzt rocked back on his heels, hardly able to believe what he was hearing. He knew that Zak had killed drow before, had killed clerics of Lloth before, but Drizzt had always assumed that the weapon master had acted out of necessity, in self-defense.

“You should show more respect to your brother,” Vierna scolded him. “To draw weapons against Dinin! You owe him your life!”

“You know?” Dinin chuckled, casting Vierna a curious glance.

“You and I were melded that night,” Vierna reminded him. “Of course I know.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Drizzt, almost afraid to hear the reply.

“You were to be the third-born male in the family,” Vierna explained, “the third living son.”

“I have heard of my brother Nal-,” The name stuck in Drizzt’s throat as he began to understand. All he had ever been able to learn of Nalfein was that he had been killed by another drow.

“You will learn in your studies at Arach-Tinilith that third living sons are customarily sacrificed to Lloth,” Vierna continued. “So were you promised. On the night that you were born, the night that House Do’Urden battled House DeVir, Dinin made his ascent to the position of elderboy,” She cast a sly glance at her brother, standing with his arms proudly crossed over his chest.

“I can speak of it now,” Vierna smiled at Dinin, who nodded his head in accord. “It happened too long ago for any punishment to be brought against Dinin.”

“What are you talking about?” Drizzt demanded. Panic hovered all about him. “What did Dinin do?”

“He put his sword into Nalfein’s back,” Vierna said calmly. Drizzt swam on the edge of nausea. Sacrifice? Murder? The annihilation of a family, even the children? What were his siblings talking about?

“Show respect to your brother!” Vierna demanded. “You owe him your life.

“I warn the both of you,” she purred, her ominous glare shaking Drizzt and knocking Dinin from his confident pedestal. “House Do’Urden may be on a course of war. If either of you strike out against the other, you will bring the wrath of all your sisters and Matron Malice-four high priestesses- down upon your worthless soul!”

Confident that her threat carried sufficient weight, she turned and left the room.

“I will go,” Drizzt whispered, wanting only to skulk away to a dark corner.